Idaho Dumps Private Prison Company Due to “Violence, Understaffing and Over-billing”

Regular readers know that I think the concept of “private prisons” is one of the worst ideas a society can possibly embrace.  While I am a small government person who strongly believes in decentralization and doing things at the local level, incarceration is something that should never, ever be driven by the profit motive. Particularly not in a country which already has 5% of the world’s population, yet 25% of the world’s prison population.  From the Idaho Statesman:

BOISE, IDAHO — Idaho prison leaders are looking for a new company to run the state’s largest prison after Corrections Corporation of America admitted to understaffing and overbilling for its work operating the Idaho Correctional Center.

The three-member Board of Correction made the decision during a meeting Tuesday evening, opting not to let an automatic two-year extension of CCA’s $29.9 million contract kick in when the current contract expires on June 30, 2014.

The Idaho Correctional Center has a been rife with problems for the past several years, with inmates bringing multiple federal lawsuits alleging rampant violence, a policy of understaffing and a practice of guards ceding too much control to prison gangs. The ACLU of Idaho sued in 2010 on behalf of inmates who said the CCA-run facility was so violent that inmates called it “Gladiator School;” that lawsuit resulted in a settlement in which CCA promised to make widespread management and staffing changes. In 2011 the company reached a financial settlement with one inmate, Hanni Elabed, who was beaten by a fellow inmate until he suffered brain damage while several guards watched.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.